The present invention relates to improvements in aircraft and particularly to improvements in the freight and cargo storage facilities of an aircraft generally being designed for holding containers and/or pallets. Moreover, the present invention relates to the construction of the storage space in aircraft being accessible through a freight hatch and having roller and ball-like tracks for moving containers and pallets about; moreover, latch elements are provided in such a storage place in order to positively position the objects, i.e. containers and/or pallets being stored in preassigned positions.
Aircraft today, and particularly commercial aircraft, are either operated in a mixed-passenger-cargo mode or exclusively as freight or cargo planes. In either case, freight-holding containers or pallets on which the freight is mounted, stored and fastened are moved into the aircraft during loading, or out of the aircraft during unloading, through a particular freight hatch. Ball mats and/or roller tracks are provided inside the aircraft for moving the rather heavy containers about and into particular positions. The rolling conveyor facilities serve also as storage locations and support after the various pieces of freight have been properly positioned. Therefore, latch elements are to be strategically provided in order to latch and arrest the pieces of freight into position or positions into which they have been moved. Latching is, of course, required and necessary because the rolling conveyor facility on which the pieces of freight rest would readily permit the pieces to move about in the storage area, because ease of movement (low friction) is the hallmark of such conveyor facilities. But, of course, once the aircraft is loaded, the various pieces of freight should stay put and their moving about has to be prevented until it is time to unload the aircraft.
Another aspect to be considered here is the fact that the containers and pallets are loaded to a widely varying degree. Moreover, they have different dimensions. So-called standard dimensions today are 88 inches by 125 inches or 88 inches by 108 inches. Due to these differences in dimensions, storing the freight efficiently in the storage area may become of logistics problem. A large system of distributed latches would be required for optimizing the area load distribution. This may pose a problem, the solution of which is highly uneconomical because of the great expenses realization would require.